


Recipe

by regalgeek



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Hecate Hardbroom geeks out for potions, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-12-26 22:07:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18291167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regalgeek/pseuds/regalgeek
Summary: Hecate Hardbroom found freedom in the depths of her cauldron.Or: Hecate's relationship with potions





	Recipe

**Author's Note:**

> I seem to have a lot of character study ideas for Hecate, and, instead of working on DHA, I wrote yet another one. Oops? Either way, I hope all of ya'll enjoy this!

Potions follow a logical set of rules, follow a set recipe which results in a set result so long as the one attempting to brew the particular concoction does not deviate. When she brews a potion, it is an ordered affair, a respite from the chaos of the world.

Hecate knows that one should use only a single firefly in a fire conjuring spell, has memorized the magical laws that dictate why it is only the one firefly which should be used, understands not just the recipes she follows but the reasons behind them. 

Potions are logical. Potions make sense. When the rest of the world is hopelessly confusing, a simple conversation leaving Hecate hopelessly lost, it is the familiar formula of an invisibility potion that brings her back to reality. The understandable, soothing, sound of it simmering, the steam rising from the water as it is brought to a boil, that puts her mind to rest. 

She follows the recipe on days when she is too tired to do more, follows the formula set down when the chaos has gotten to be too much for her, too senseless for her, to want anything other than that comforting stability. There is a sort of freedom in knowing that so long as one follows the set instructions without error, they will get exactly what they planned. Sadly, life does not come with recipes. 

There is no formula for finding friendship, no ingredients for her to learn the properties of in order to avoid confusing others or provoking enmity.

It is on her better days that she utilizes her true talents, experimenting and creating, improving on the old recipes, striving for the closest thing to perfection it is possible for her to reach. One would look at her notes, prototype formulas, and half-finished research and wonder how they could ever be considered “ordered.” For the uninitiated, it is confusing, trying to differentiate between the seemingly nonsensical ingredients, stirring patterns, boiling temperatures, and incantations used in her various trials during research and the the unbridled chaos which Hecate so despises.

The difference is in the subject matter itself. Every potion follows rules and magical principles, every ingredient has its own magical properties, measurable, documented, and consistent. Every variation on how many stirs, every change in direction, when the stirs are added in the brewing process, an alteration which can be expected and predicted based on the innate, measured, rules which guide it. 

Everything in the field of potions is guided by rules and the interactions between them. The result of changing spider eyes for bat mucus in a particular potion can be predicted before it occurs. Despite the fact that both ingredients amplify the properties of the potion they are added to, they interact differently. The spider eyes increase the potency of the individual ingredients, while the bat mucus increases the effect of the end product. Hecate knows the exact numbers, the exact magic, behind the differences, and even the proper steps to take should she ever need to make such a switch and still have a working potion.  
There is a beautiful rationality to potions which leaves Hecate entranced. In carefully measured portions, memorization of even the most mundane facts, and sheer determination, the potential is limitless. Through work with potions, she herself is limitless. Her inability to comprehend social dynamics at times, her laundry list of other deficiencies, all of it can be rectified, accounted for, made somehow less important, through her skill with potions.

Even at a young age, Hecate could instinctively understand the magical principles which guided potion-making. She had difficulty wrapping her mind around the subjective nature of chanting and needed to study in order to grasp spell science. She found herself unimpaired in the potions lab, with an instinctive understanding of exactly how finely powdered her dried nettles should be in a wide-awake potion, and steady hands when adding in a pinch of pondweed.

Hecate finds learning about potions to be fascinating and rewarding, finds her research as enjoyable as a chess game with Pippa (and considerably more fun than any sort of party or other large gathering), feels a sense of fulfillment every time she bottles the finished product of her latest project. While usually her faults and failings leave her with a sense of self-loathing, when she’s in the potions lab they serve only to make her more determined. 

She can help others with her potions, can heal the small cuts and bruises that plague her students, and the more major injuries that arise on occasion as well. While she has the capacity for destruction should she ever lose control, it is tempered by her capacity to help and to heal. Her skill with potions can save people, and the knowledge that she is doing good in the world with something she enjoys so much, an act which can fill her with euphoria and calm her every tangled nerve, means more than words can possibly begin to express.

Potions are ordered and structured, and understandable. There is no subjectivity, no way to add bias into an understanding of which potion is better than the other, potions are safe. So long as she follows the recipe, so long as she understands the recipe, she has a safe harbor from the chaos and confusion of the world. Potions are both an art and a science, both a way for her to express herself and a way for her to take control.

When Hecate sets a cauldron to simmer, all of her problems seem less important. Her pain seems less potent when she searches for ingredients in the cabinet. Her anxiety melts away as she stirs the concoction and it turns the precise color detailed in the instructions. Her feelings of being lost and far too different fade as she measures the next ingredient. Her guilt seems less heavy as she bottles the final product. 

Some find freedom in books, art, and music. Others feel free when they travel, or play sports, or relax in the sun.

Hecate Hardbroom found freedom in the depths of her cauldron.


End file.
